Well...In the end it worked out quite good with my 6 days plan, but to be honest, little bit different as I expected:
Day 1 - Not again!
After leaving KC, my goal for the day was to get a little bit past Topeka with an afternoon-stoppover in Lawrence, the city between, to watch the second German-match in a sportsbar there which was about to start around 2pm. Although it was still pretty hilly on the 80km to Lawrence it was a pretty chilled ride cause I was cycling in the shadow of a close morning-thunderstorm, which is very unlikely even here in Kansas. When I looked it up on the radar, it seemed to be the only cloud in the whole middle-west. It came pretty close, not even a mile away but didn't hit me so I stayed dry and could enjoy temperatures not over 30℃/90℉ which was almost freezing compared to the temperature-record the day before:)
The sun came out just when I arrived at the bar, good timing! But honestly, I better would have continued: No goals in 90 minutes, rare chances, wasted time! But at least the onion rings and fries were delicious!
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| Watching the football match with the support of some delicious food:) |
Before I continued I made a quick stop at the closest bike-shop to get my back wheel fixed, cause it started wobbling somehow and I didn't want to risk getting another back wheel again at some point!
Repair went quick and the guy at the shop said it would be for free:) What I didn't know at that point: I would see him again, unfortunately:/
However after I continued I noticed that my back-tire wasn't pumped up as much as before so I decided to stop at the next fuel station to put some more air in. I tried to increase the pressure to 65psi, like I had it before but the electrical pump always showed just 60psi whatever I did. At some point I just decided to continue and take the next fuel station, when I heard this way to familiar noise again: something pushing against my brakes......
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| You can see how the tire got bigger than before:/ |
Apparently the scale on the pump was broken and I must have filled at least 100psi or more in so it simply burst the tire which was now at least 2cm bigger in diameter than before!
Continuing? Impossible! Bike shop? Closed! So my only option was to head back in direction of the shop, find a place to sleep an go there the next morning. At least I could use the extra time for blog-writing and sending applications for flats in the towns I'll probably live in while studying:) Just 80km that day! Average distance I had to do now in the following 5 days: 195km (121mi):/ Let's see:)
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| Place I stayed that night |
Day 2 - So hot!
I didn't have to wake up that early this day cause the bike shop opened just 9:30am and I was just 3km away. But I did wake up pretty early anyway cause the sun shone on my tent and by 8 o'clock it was just too hot stay in the tent anymore.
I slowly cycled then towards the bike shop I've been the day before, with not more than 10km/h (6mph) trying not to rub the tire through before reaching the shop. Again I was kinda lucky in dealing with my tire-problems cause just 30m before the shop my brakes rubbed the tire completely through and the tube exploded, just in time:) The people in the bike shop, obviously surprised to see me again, didn't even need 20 minutes to change tire and tube and I could quickly continue. Although it wasn't for free this time, but honestly I couldn't expect that for a new tire:)
On my way to the next city, Topeka, (40km/25mi) from Lawrence, the heat was just brutal! I mean, I had 38℃/100℉) before but this time the humidity was about 90% and there were quite a few hills as well so the sweat just ran down from me like a waterfall!
When I reached Topeka, which is the capital of Kansas I found out later:), I just went into the next McDonald's and emptied 3 coups of Mountain Dew (1 liter each) in a row, with lots of ice of course;) Sooo refreshing! After a short stop at the state capitol I continued on my way west, and luckily got into a valley which meant the following 80km (50mi) were almost completely flat which made the heat not feel so bad.
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| Becoming hotter and hotter! |
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| No comment:) |
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| Downtown Topeka |
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| Kansas State Capitol |
After passing another "big" town called Manhattan it got pretty hilly again but the sun was already about to set so it didn't affect me really. It was actually a way harder task to find a secret place to sleep cause even the trees seem to disappear slowly and give way to huge meadows for cows or apparently often even for nothing:) That looked pretty much like the English countryside now, or at least how I remembered it from pictures I've seen. Long flat green hills and just a few trees (English people please correct me if I'm wrong:) Finally I found a place behind a few trees which seemed quite good to hide from looks from the street.
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| Place for the night in the middle of nowhere |
But it actually was a really bad place to hide from a thunderstorm, what came to my mind when I woke up around 3am cause of some loud rumbling sounds. I didn't expext a thunderstorm at all, cause there have been no clouds in the evening but now it was shaking my tent quite heavy and getting closer apparently. I now realized that I was camping right next to the only couple of trees in the surrounding area so I panicked a little bit in that moment. I'm not sure if a bicycle made out of metal attracts lightning but just in case I went out quickly moved my bike like 100m away from my tent, put a few extra pegs in the ground and jumped back in again. The thunderstorm seemed to be all around me but luckily in the end it didn't rained at all, just heavy winds:)
Day 3 - The record day
Pretty tired I woke up because of my smartphone ringing at 8am, not because of the sun this time! When I went out of the tent I saw why: the thunderstorms must have been part of a weather-front cause the whole sky was covered in clouds - Yippee:) And I noticed another thing this morning: First I wanna say to all the people who warned me of the strong winds I would get in these parts of the US: "You have been right!". But the strong winds that day were not coming from the west, I really got strong east-winds, which meant backwinds the whole day!! These three factors together: No heat, almost no hills and strong backwinds made an average speed of 21,1km/h (13mph) possible which was the first record that day.
The second one was the logical outcome of the first: Much speed means much distance! So by the end of the day I had topped the 200km - mark by 4 kilometers and ended with 204,77km, all time record:)
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| Hitting the 200km-mark right before sunset:) |
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| Straight and flat:) |
There's nothing to tell about the landscape at all, just lonely meadows as far as you can see, flat hills and on the whole 200km I just passed 4 villages! The only intersting thing was the world's largest ball of Sisal Twine I passed in the last village. It's really huuge! It was started by a guy called Frank Stoeber in 1953 and nobody knows why:) But anyway, 63 years later it reached a circumference of 43 feet, weighs 20028 pounds (about 9tonns) and contains 8083640ft (2464km/1531mi) of Sisal Twine! They even have a big celebration every year, when all the neighbor villages come together and add some Sisal Twine:) So funny, just because of this Sisal Twine ball :D
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| World's largest ball of Sisal Twine:) |
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| Like it looked most of the day |
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| Cow sunset |
Day 4 - Town names which make you think:)
The place I chose for the night, near a small creek, turned out to be a bad choice when I woke up the next morning! It wasn't because of the bugs which were bad every night so far, but rather because of the woodlice! Hundreds of them went onto and into all my stuff! They were literally everywhere: in my shoes, in my clothes, in my bags, in my food, everywhere! I've never seen something like this before and it was so hard to get them out of all my stuff and ugly as well! I've no idea where they came from, cause when you looked on the ground you could barely see any of them!
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| Woodlice everywhere!! |
Finally I got rid of all of them, at least I think so (didn't look to deep into my bags), and got on the road again.
Just a few kilometers later I barely couldn't trust my eyes: The little village I was about to pass was really called "Gaylord" no kidding!!. (picture below:). What in hell makes somebody name a village like that? You definitely would get many weird looks when people ask you where you're from:D
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| WTF? :D |
Just a couple hours later I passed a town called "Stuttgart":) same as the capitol of the state I live in in Germany, just 40km from my home. Sure I had to take a picture being so close to home again but so far away:D
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| So close to home again!:) |
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| Great Plains impressions |
Nothing interesting happened on that day later:)
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| Group of cows trying to escape from the heat |
Day 5 - Testing the limits
After 35℃ the day before the weather forecast for this day was just 31℃/89℉ so it seemed to become a good day for doing some of the remaining 400km/250mi to Denver. And it went quite well. With the help of light backwinds I was able to do 20,6km/h (12,8mph) so I reached the border to Colorado almost by 3pm.
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| Entering the state of weed:D |
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| After I didn't get a welcome-sign I got a goodbye-sign from Kansas at least:) |
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| Getting another extra hour! |
Now it was getting super flat, not even a tiny hill in sight and I was just 280km away from Denver anymore. I would have done it on 3 days (what was my plan before) what would have meant that the third day would have been really short so I decided on the hardcore-option, hoping it would stay that flat and do the 400km in two days instead.
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| Just anywhere:) |
Now that I entered Colorado I entered Mountain Time Zone as well what gave me an extra hour which helped me with the monster-stage a little bit.
What helped me during the last few days as well, was the fact that I could here my favorite German radio channel SWR3 via Internet streaming!
Yeah, you read right: Internet!!! For some reason and I have really absolutely no idea why, I had perfect, and I mean really perfect reception all along highway 36, even better than I had it in the big cities and you have to consider that around here is absolutely nothing! No civilisation as far you can see, 60-80km between every village but internet! So strange!
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| Snake I almost run over |
But however the reason was for that, I could hear radio all day long, which brought me at some point to the idea to write a message to the Radio studio during the live show, just for fun:) Thousands of people are doing that in an hour and sometimes the moderator reads their messages or even calls them. So I just sent a message where I am and what I'm doing when like half an hour later my phone suddenly rang. Almost forgot about the message I sent, I had now idea who would call me right now, even from Europe, in the middle of the night over there, when the host of the Radio show I was listening to in this moment said hello:D I was totally surprised about being on a live-show right out of nowhere! He was really intersted in my trip and what makes me doing that and all that stuff and asked me a few more questions before putting me live on the show. Sure the amount of people listening at night is probably way less than during the day but it's still a strange feeling when you know that thousands of people listening what you're talking with the host of a radio show:) We did kinda the same interview again but just live this time and after that he said he would call me again around Sunday night to talk again:) let's see how that works out cause it that moment I was still to much surprised to ask when exactly he would call or if they would tell me before, so I just can hope I'll get that good reception again next time! But still, what a cool surprise, a live interview on a radio channel, which is according to last year ratings the most popular one in Germany!
After that interview slowed me down a little bit for sure:), sun was already setting when I hit the 200km/125 mi -mark but the decision still stand and so I continued till the middle of the night.
Night-cycling isn't a problem at all here in the middle of nowhere, cause almost no cars are passing by and if they are you can see the lights from far away already. And due to the Good reception I was even able to call all the people at home I hadn't talked to for weeks:)
Not exhausted at all I finally stopped then shortly to midnight when I did enough distance to not have remaining more then 150km for the final day. It was: 263,26km (164mi) absolutely all time record!! Even 50km more than I ever did on a racing-bike, it was just the perfect day:)
Final Day - The superlative of nothing
On my final day to Denver it got really hot and for some reason the last 100km (60mi) were really hilly again. Not just these flat hills like in Kansas, but quite steep ones as well. It's not that it would be not possible to cycle then but I really wished myself a cold drink cause the water in my bag had almost the outside temperature. This hot water is still same good as cold water, but it's just wonderful when you get some refreshments along the way:) But no chance here, the distance from the point were I started to the next town was 90km (56mi) and although it was just 100km away from the suburbs of Denver! there was nothing, absolutely nothing along the way. The only thing I passed were a few houses at an intersection at the beginning but all abandoned, nobody there...
Except of that it was just dry grass fields the whole way. Abandoned like that I've never seen it before, there were not even farm houses, just nothing! I was kinda surprised about that because I wasn't in a desert or something. I think you could do way more farming around here but apparently it seems that nobody wants to live here somehow (reception was still amazing by the way:)
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| More than just nothing! |
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| Hitchhiking illegal? No way! |
Then after 50km (31mi) I suddenly spotted something next to the road. It was a car-race going on in the middle of nowhere! The "get yourself a cold drink - voice" in my head said I should definitely try it there and voila: Ice-cold Mountain Dew and Orange Juice, what a refreshing moment! :D
After that it was way easier to cycle and pretty soon I spotted the first suburbs of Denver and little bit later, downtown.
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| Downtown Denver pretty close already :) |
I was already pretty late to arrive but it should become even later cause suddenly an old guy on a bicycle stopped and started talking to me. He was already almost 70years old, from Germany:) and on a cross-country trip like me but from Seattle to Chicago. He told me that he was cycling his whole life and has been in literally every country of the world by bike!! To pay for his trips he's testing bicycles from different brands on long trips like that and stopps in bike-shops everywhere to tell people about his experience, about the bike and his trip of course:) Like that he had financed almost every of his journeys and sometimes he said in countrys like Saudi Arabia it had been that uncommon to cycle there that many people thought he would need some support and gave him money. At the and of his half-year trip there he had more money than at the beginning, that's the way you should travel!!:D His name was Heinz Stücke by the way if somebody knows him:)
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| That's him:) |
Cause it was so interesting listening to him I was more than half an hour later again and it seemed like I would arrive in darkness this time. It got even later again when I had to seek shelter because of sudden very strong winds that blew a lot of dust in the air. Cause a thunderstorm was pretty close many people thought it would be a tornado and looked for a save place as well but as fast as the winds appeared they went away again.
Then 50km before reaching Downtown Denver I could finally see what I've been waiting for weeks: The Rocky Mountains where now slightly visible through the dusty air! The whole mountain range seems to block the way like a massive wall raising out of the Great Plains in front of them! It looked really impressive and even more with the sun setting between the mountains:)
Now finally after 3500km cycling in the flat parts of the US the most awesome part of my trip is about to start: mountains, rivers, deserts and canyons. Can't wait to finally get in there!:)
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| Rocky Mountain sunset |
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| :) |
At 9:20pm and 20km cycling towards downtown (Denver is a huge spread out city and the fastest growing one in the US as well) I finally arrived at Brians home, (the guy I was meeting here) He's an aerospace engineer, exactly what I wanna be in a few years so we got a nice topic to talk about except of my trip of course;). Well I arrived not exactly at his house but at the bar in downtown he was in that moment so we had a nice evening there. His home was pretty close to downtown, so I had just a final 10min-ride to his place and after a quick shower I fell to sleep almost immediately.
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| Downtown Denver in the night |
Day 7 - Resting day
Of course it was no question to continue the next day after doing 400km the last two days so I slept as long as I wanted this morning. On the way to Denver it was steadily going uphill a tiny little bit every kilometer so although I didn't really noticed it I was now already 1600m above sea level, (one mile high) although the landscape around Denver seems rather flat like the Netherlands and not a mile high:) The only way I could notice that I was in one-mile-city now was that it became way cooler in the night, finally!! :D not cold, but not 25℃ or more like I had it in Kansas or before.
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| Brians house |
This day was a pretty lazy one for me: getting up at 11am, having breakfast at noon, and doing a short bike trip around Denver. I went to several Thrift stores to buy myself some new shoes, cause through the holes of my current ones I can almost see my feet now but I didn't find anything in there, so I decided to try it the next day at Walmart.
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| Downtown Denver in daylight:) |
But I got the pressure-gauge I wanted to buy at a bike shop:), just because that something like that accident with to much air in my tire at the fuel station in Lawrence can't happen again! After having a look around Downtown I really had to ride back to Brian's house.
Now that I was cycling without my 3 shorts on, I could really feel what the last two days did to my bud, the saddle felt hard like stone and it was quite painful but I could stand it:)
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| Lots of cyclists in Downtown cause of "bike to work day" :) |
When Brian came back from work he invited me to a restaurant for dinner and we had some delicious Meatloaf, a mix of different kinds of meat, with roasted corn and potatoes, Yummy:)
Back home I got the chance to meet his room-mate Katy who lives with him in the same house. She was kinda surprised when she heard that I'm doing my trip on a bicycle and not on a bike with an engine like she thought:)
I was still pretty exhausted and tired from the day before so I went to bed early again (that's why this post comes a little late).
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| Delicious Meatloaf:) |
I just can say thanks to you Brian for that nice stay in Denver and for the delicious Meatloaf, was a pleasure to meet you!
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| Brian & me |
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| And finally the route I did during that post:) |
